Opinion: The IRS’s Accomplices

Best of the Web Today columnist James Taranto on how ProPublica and the Huffington Post helped the IRS target conservative groups. Photo: Getty Images

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... welcome to Opinion Journal why Mary Kissel ... what were another day in to the IRS harassment scandal and it turns out to be even worse than we first thought ... they were only targeting conservative groups but the folks that ers were also leaking ... confidential information to friendly left leaning media outlets ... that a comic is best to the Web columnist James Taranto to chains ... but star with Roku book for the viewers out there don't know what is probable cause and how does it lead to this gambit from public used a high ... five oh one C3 tax exempt nonprofit corporation ... we've been talking about five the onesie forests like these tea party groups the distinction of five the onesie for five the onesie for is a five one C3 is knots posted any political activists Bisquick charitable organization ... and in its contributions are tax deductible as well as its operations paying tax exempt here but share news organization it's a bit of files is a charity ... which is not unusual or a lot of magazines are published by five the onesie for it ... but what sort of interesting here is ProPublica reported just yesterday ... that an earlier report of theirs from last year ... had been based on confidential ... filing is from a conservative five the onesie for applicants ... that had been leaked works at the ProPublica Inn in response to requests for information ... by ... even though in violation of a lot of these were confidential ... applications that were not supposed to be released to anyone ... now probably the IRS contacted ProPublica afterwards and said O D please don't use these when exposed to release them hoops ... bought by Republicans in game six of the nine applications are received newsworthy and actually reproduce them on the website ... including four arrived here from Karl Rove's group American crossroads extraordinary and in this isn't the only group that received leaked information ... from the IRS tells the but let me just say one thing about this deal we have the IRS using a fiber one C3 and even more privileged type of nonprofit ... to ... disseminate confidential information about five the onesie for is that Iran could lead to less this is astonishing this is really the catalyst ... the other example ... involves a group called the National Organization for marriage this is a five the onesie for a nonprofit that is as opposed to same sex marriage ... I do the popping tempo style ... of leader was a couple of years ago also use the Huffington post ... ride yes I never thought that ... I'd ... reproduced gets Icahn financial donor list which it had died it had died ... supplied the IRS ... not in this case there was an intermediary ... this was applied to the Huffington post I ordered we were caught by ... a group called the human rights campaign which is a pro same sex marriage organization ... right now when you think about that's ... probably what happened here was ... by you know there was a lot of pressure to why ... armed groups that are against same sex marriage side ... what happened was the human rights campaign got sort of popped up with its own moral authority ... they thought they were doing good thing by exposing the donors to them at Morgan writes probably get a sympathetic Diet bead on at the IRS is that so to ... it's you know whatever you think of same sex marriage ... this sense of moral authority ... led them to do things that were illegal and draw and very scary and our colleague Kim straw soul last year chronicled the trials and tribulations of the franc vendors asleep ... the whole but not separately ... we think in a Mitt Romney in he was targeted by the IRS ... when it was revealed that he was one of the biggest owner so that kinda yesterday to donate to Romney because you can lean on a five thousand dollars for campaign he donated to organizations that were supporting Romney's candidacy ... Obama the Obama camp and ... I'd ... call him out by name and email to its supporters and said that he had a shady reputation ... whereupon he was SA audited for two years of his tax returns by the IRS ... his ... business was lauded by the Labor audited by the Labor Department ... and ... his sense spin on it in the third time or been announced that it was notified of an audit for third year at the IRS ... ride ... and you know we don't have ... absolute proof that this you know the one cause the other ... bought ... present Obama ... I it's four years ago yesterday the commencement speech made a joke ... about by sending the administrators of the Arizona State University real estate in for tax on its because they had denied him ... an honorary degree ... it's a joke that doesn't seem quite so funny now when we see these pervasive abuses of the IRS in his administration I think that's ... a good understanding in chains that almost seems ... sinister ... I welcome the tone is set from the top that's the important thing to realize derivative of Obama didn't ... expressly direct the IRS to do